home page
other articles about the future
books
related article Fish Hatchery Road
related article I-59 Exit 3

Watch the Crown Zellerbach Area

A large undeveloped area in the middle of Saint Tammany Parish divides the parish into a distinct west and a Slidell side. The area is bound by Lacombe on the south, Washington Parish on the north, Highway 59 on the west, and Camp Villere on the east.

Because of the inaccessible rural nature of this area, the highest use of these tracts of land has traditionally been forestry and paper products. The Crown-Zellerbach Company owns much of the land.

That is about to change abruptly. The intersection of I-12 and state highway 434 is in this region. The two- or three-story hospital near completion will make the adjacent tracts suddenly much more valuable as commercial and especially residential developments.

The similar area north of Atlanta, Georgia has exploded with development. There are numerous shopping areas several times larger than North Shore Mall in areas that were built within the last five years. These intersections seem to follow a pattern:

1. First there are McDonald’s, Burger King, and the others.
   
2. Within a radius of a few miles, subdivisions begin.
   
3. Immediately Home Depot, Super WalMart, Kohl’s, and the like appear.
   
4. As the houses are built, businesses like Radio Shack begin to appear.
   
5. Next come the “Sunday afternoon” family restaurants such as Arby’s and TGIF.
   
6. In the last stage, specialty shops begin to appear.
   
7. The post office gives the area the name of the nearest conventional community, though this community may be quite distant.

Where do the service stations come in?

I can identify these phases from watching development north of Atlanta, Georgia, but the phases widely overlap. Service stations are sometimes first; sometimes they do not appear until the second or third phase.

I think that the most likely scenario of development will come in this order:

1. I-12 and Highway 434 (the hospital area)
2. I-12 and Highway 1088
3. Further development of Highway 59 north of I-12
4. Highway 36 parallel to I-12, undeveloped now but only five miles north of I-12
5. Highway 40 west of Folsom

There will be opportunities in this area. The ones we are interested in are service stations, C-stores, and car washes.

See other related links about the Zachary Taylor Expressway and proposed Highway 3241 from I-12 to Bogalusa.

Chronology
09/09/2002. This essay posted to web page.

Copyright © - 2002 Dutch Hawkins Mandeville, LA USA - All Rights Reserved

September 9, 2002